Bob McDougall: Rethink on care for the elderly is long overdue

While this is a starting point for improvement, no major changes will be seen until local authorities and service providers start working together to offer a needs-led rather than budget-driven approach to care.

Across the board there is a drive to reduce costs while the demand for services continues to increase. Stories of fleeting visits by overworked agency staff determined by what suits the care provider, rather than the individual, are all too common. These, along with the recent care-home crisis, show how the quality of services being offered to the elderly is diminishing.

Yet improvements could be made if central and local government were willing to co-ordinate housing, social work and care services funding and service delivery to provide a higher quality of choice for our elders. We need to expand the concept of traditional models of sheltered and residential care, where you take an older person out of their own home and put them in a specialised, staffed environment and instead look to the 'Housing with Care' model, where service providers work together to assist people in their own home, allowing independent living for longer.

Trust Housing Association has introduced this model and our customers already see the benefits in terms of a seamless care service provided by the same staff, which provides cost savings for the local authorities.

The care is not sheltered or residential, but gives residents the chance to live independently in their own tenancy, with care services provided on site.

This is not only holistic and economically viable, but also serves as a preventative measure, helping avoid hospitalisation for many individuals – allowing them to remain within their local community for longer.

We need to stop seeing elderly people as a liability and begin to view them as what they are - an asset.

• Bob McDougall is the chief executive of Trust Housing Association